Courageous Advocacy in Action!

Defined as: 'the act of speaking up and taking action for a cause, often on behalf of others or to address injustice, requiring bravery'

Our School Councillors have certainly done that through their work this year; what a wonderful group of young leaders to work with. This year, they have lead two successful fundraising campaigns to support national charities, raising awareness in the school and local community about the need to support others. Both campaigns involved the councillors speaking out to the school and through the newsletter and local media to explain about the injustices faced and how raising money and awareness could help.

At the infants our School Councillors wanted to raise awareness abut the injustice that not everyone has access to open space and a garden. Their solution was to create class gardens at school so all children could enjoy access to 'green spaces' and feel what it was like to take responsibility for looking after something. Following research, class meetings, a few set backs, visits to the local garden centre (Yew Tree were a huge help!) and a planting day their class gardens are in full bloom and nearly ready to harvest peas and strawberries! A huge well done to our youngest School Councillors for leading this successful campaign at St Thomas'.

At the juniors our School Councillors have really thrown themselves into the national discussions about food poverty. They felt impowered to act on behalf of others after their visit to the West Berkshire Food Bank and over the year had lead two successful food collections for the food bank, raised awareness in school and beyond through; news articles locally, leaflet drops in the local area to help people understand what food poverty is and how we can help others and writing to their local MP. They heard back this week from our MP Kit Malthouse who promises in his letter that our campaign has 'his full support and he will be pressing the Government to work with charitable organisations and the food industry to increase its capacity'.

We are so proud of the ways our School Councillors have been role models this year; they have stood up for what they believe in, shown courage in sharing this with others and resilience to keep going. They know they can be agents of change through their actions and that even small changes can have a ripple effect and have lasting impact.